Education Technology


Hot Air Balloon

Activity Overview

Students model integer addition and subtraction by adding or subtracting the amount of helium and sandbags for a hot air balloon.

Key Steps

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    Students begin by understanding the concepts of adding helium bags and sand bags to change the balloon’s position, and how the helium and sand bags are related to positive and negative integers. 

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    The model in Problem 2 displays two balloons side by side and is used to find a missing addend when the sum and the other addend are given.